JNU to promote start-ups

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) JNU is back in the news and this time for the right reasons. The university under its start-up policy, has established Jawaharlal Nehru University Foundation for Innovation (JNUFI) to support the students and faculties who owned start-ups."Today NITI Aayog sanctioned financial support of Rs 9.99 crore for five years to support the JNUFI as Atal Incubation Centre (AIC-JNUFI) under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) scheme of Government of India," said a statement from JNU.It said the goal of AIC-JNUFI is to promote and support start-ups in specific subjects or sectors that have applications and impact in the core sectors of the economy.One of its mandates is to promote and establish a "world-class incubation facility for creating and incubating novel technologies, and business ideas into viable commercial products or services". Apart from helping the start-ups, the AIC-JNUFI will encourage innovation in the Indian ecosystem and in JNU through its activities such as workshops, training and capacity building, mentoring support, to early-stage start-ups.The starting of AIC-JNUFI on JNU campus will foster start-up companies and budding entrepreneurs with mentorship and guidance to encourage start-ups and take care of the unemployment problem in India to some extent.So far, seven companies owned by faculties or students have already been approved by the due-diligence committee for incubation at AIC-JNUFI, and three such companies have started their residence in AIC-JNUFI. The AIC-JNUFI has aimed to incubate more than 100 start-up companies over a period of five years.
--IANS abn/rag/kr